Last week, TNT analyst Steve Kerr said on a conference call that he thought the pressure of going to the Finals a fourth straight time would be too much for Miami, and that the Heat would be out after the conference finals.

On Monday, ESPN's George Karl chimed in on the two-time defending champs: "It seems like they're half a body short of a true rotation. I don't know if someone else is going to expand their game. I don't know other than, I think there are so many teams that are close to Miami this year that if you gave me a choice between betting the field and betting Miami, I think I take the field."

Hey, we've been saying this for months. In fact, we've been saying for months which team, specifically, would be the one to knock off Miami. With that, on the eve of this year's NBA season kick-off, let's have some bold predictions.

1. The Nets and Clippers will meet in the Finals

It kind of has to happen, right? With the overdue breakup of the Celtics, Doc Rivers was nudged to the West Coast, taking over a revamped Clippers team that has some serious depth on the roster. Meanwhile, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett-who were targets of Rivers in his machinations to get out of Boston-eventually wound up in Brooklyn as part of a draft-day deal that left the Nets as stacked as any team in the league. Doc vs. KG and Paul. The storyline is too perfect, right?

All right, storylines don't determine outcomes. But as the Thunder deal with a makeshift bench and the Russell Westbrook injury, and as the Spurs deal with the march of age, this could be the year for a surprise in the West, and no one is in better position to be that surprise team than Rivers' Clippers. The same could be said for Brooklyn. With due respect for Chicago and Indiana, if anyone has the ingredients needed to upend Miami-toughness, championship experience, frontcourt scoring, perimeter defense, one-on-one defenders-it is the Nets.

So we're marking it down. The Finals will start in a little more than seven months. We'll see Brooklyn and the Clippers on the floor.

2. It's finally Durant's year

LeBron James has won four of the last five MVP awards, and he is the clear favorite to do so again. But if there is one thing we've seen about the way the NBA observer class votes for its awards, it is this: They don't like giving out more than two MVPs in a row to any player. Even Michael Jordan. I repeat: EVEN MICHAEL JORDAN.

There are only three players in league history who have managed three straight MVPs, and the last was Larry Bird from 1983-'86. Before that was Wilt Chamberlain ('65-'68) and Bill Russell ('60-'63). As great as James is, the odds are stacked against him, and not just because those of us with ballots can sometimes be dunderheads who never saw fit to give Michael Jordan the MVP three straight years. (Again: Michael Jordan.)

Durant, of course, should have an excellent season. He averaged 28.1 points last year, with 7.9 rebounds and 4.6 assists, shooting 51.0 percent and 43.6 percent from the 3-point line. He is only 25, and can reasonably be expected to have improved his overall game. Keep in mind that Durant's compadre, Russell Westbrook, will be out for the first quarter of the season. If Durant comes out of the gate strong and Oklahoma City is able to stay near the top of the conference without Westbrook, there will be early momentum behind the Durant-for-MVP campaign.

Whether that is right can be debated. But look at the history-writers are suckers for MVP momentum, especially if it bucks the expected winner.

3. Portland is your darkhorse worth watching

The Blazers were not a bad team last year. But they were thin on the bench and being run by a rookie point guard.

Now, Damian Lillard has a year under his belt, and he won't make the same mistakes again. He should be an improved shooter and a better decision-maker-that is one of the benefits of the Blazers having thrown him into the fire last year with an astounding 38.6 minutes per game.

But there is much more to what will be a surprising Portland push. General manager Neil Olshey did not need to crunch many numbers to figure out where his group was lacking last year-they had one of the worst benches in recent memory, and did not have a true center. So Olshey got Robin Lopez to be the dirty-work guy next to power forward LaMarcus Aldridge, and filled out the rotation with veterans Earl Watson, Mo Williams and Dorell Wright. If the Blazers can get something out of any two of their four young big men (Meyers Leonard, Thomas Robinson, Victor Claver, Joel Freeland), that depth issue will be long a thing of the past.

4. The Suns deserve the Wiggins win

Call it tanking if you must. Fire sale, perhaps. The more genteel among us prefer to call it a, "committed rebuild," and it is the path the Suns are taking. Phoenix, no doubt, is committed. Consider that, when the Wizards came calling in the wake of the Emeka Okafor injury-Okafor has a disc problem and is out indefinitely-the Suns not only gave up starting center Marcin Gortat, they shoved Shannon Brown and 2012 lottery pick Kendall Marshall into the deal.

To say Phoenix is preparing for a bad year is like saying 1929 didn't go so well for the economy. The West is a night-to-night gauntlet of good teams,and the Suns are going into it with Goran Dragic, Eric Bledsoe and the Morris twins? Channing Frye? James Nunnally?

Look, the Sixers have done their best to set up a truly awful year. The Magic are still in the midst of their post-Dwightmare haze. You can never say, "worst record in basketball," without instinctively thinking, "Bobcats," no matter how their roster has improved. But no one is showing the willingness to lose an awful lot quite the way the Suns (who could have four first-round picks in next year's draft) are showing. The lottery might foil their plans, but you can't deny that they are deserving of the right to choose Andrew Wiggins first overall next year.